Not Vada Pav -- Idli, Dosa used to be Bombay's favorite snacks

Around the same time, the Shiv Sena itself was grumbling against two south Indian delicacies that had become Bombay (as it was known then) staples—the dosa and the idli.

That’s because “Bal Thackeray, the founder of the Shiv Sena, accused south Indians of taking jobs that ‘rightly’ belonged to the Marathi manoos,” Harris Solomon, a professor of cultural anthropology in Duke University, wrote in a paper last month.

So, Shiv Sena workers began encouraging members to set up stalls around the party’s outposts across the city.

Solomon’s study—”The Taste No Chef Can Give: Processing Street Food in Mumbai”—is based on 18 months of field research in India’s financial capital, and is an attempt to understand how the Shiv Sena branded the vada pav as its own.

By the 1980s, as Mumbai’s textile mills began to shut down, the Shiv Sena made a cunning culinary manoeuvre. Mill workers who lost their jobs to the closures had begun putting up vada pav stalls around those factories that were still running. And their colleagues in these establishments reciprocated by buying from them. The Shiv Sena swiftly capitalised on this sentiment.

“The Shiv Sena stepped in and offered unlicensed hawkers protection from city officials and police, for a price. It began as a few rupees each day, but over time would indebt street vendors to the Shiv Sena in amounts of hundreds or even thousands of rupees a week,” explained Solomon. “It was this milieu that gave birth to the Shiv Sena’s own origin story of the vada pav: the authentic snack that sustained workers in times of labour trouble.”

confuzzled dude wrote:

Around the same time, the Shiv Sena itself was grumbling against two south Indian delicacies that had become Bombay (as it was known then) staples—the dosa and the idli.

That’s because “Bal Thackeray, the founder of the Shiv Sena, accused south Indians of taking jobs that ‘rightly’ belonged to the Marathi manoos,” Harris Solomon, a professor of cultural anthropology in Duke University, wrote in a paper last month.

So, Shiv Sena workers began encouraging members to set up stalls around the party’s outposts across the city.

Solomon’s study—”The Taste No Chef Can Give: Processing Street Food in Mumbai”—is based on 18 months of field research in India’s financial capital, and is an attempt to understand how the Shiv Sena branded the vada pav as its own.

By the 1980s, as Mumbai’s textile mills began to shut down, the Shiv Sena made a cunning culinary manoeuvre. Mill workers who lost their jobs to the closures had begun putting up vada pav stalls around those factories that were still running. And their colleagues in these establishments reciprocated by buying from them. The Shiv Sena swiftly capitalised on this sentiment.

“The Shiv Sena stepped in and offered unlicensed hawkers protection from city officials and police, for a price. It began as a few rupees each day, but over time would indebt street vendors to the Shiv Sena in amounts of hundreds or even thousands of rupees a week,” explained Solomon. “It was this milieu that gave birth to the Shiv Sena’s own origin story of the vada pav: the authentic snack that sustained workers in times of labour trouble.”

http://qz.com/358779/how-a-right-wing-political-party-crafted-the-legend-of-mumbais-most-famous-snack/

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

confuzzled dude wrote:

Around the same time, the Shiv Sena itself was grumbling against two south Indian delicacies that had become Bombay (as it was known then) staples—the dosa and the idli.

That’s because “Bal Thackeray, the founder of the Shiv Sena, accused south Indians of taking jobs that ‘rightly’ belonged to the Marathi manoos,” Harris Solomon, a professor of cultural anthropology in Duke University, wrote in a paper last month.

So, Shiv Sena workers began encouraging members to set up stalls around the party’s outposts across the city.

Solomon’s study—”The Taste No Chef Can Give: Processing Street Food in Mumbai”—is based on 18 months of field research in India’s financial capital, and is an attempt to understand how the Shiv Sena branded the vada pav as its own.

By the 1980s, as Mumbai’s textile mills began to shut down, the Shiv Sena made a cunning culinary manoeuvre. Mill workers who lost their jobs to the closures had begun putting up vada pav stalls around those factories that were still running. And their colleagues in these establishments reciprocated by buying from them. The Shiv Sena swiftly capitalised on this sentiment.

“The Shiv Sena stepped in and offered unlicensed hawkers protection from city officials and police, for a price. It began as a few rupees each day, but over time would indebt street vendors to the Shiv Sena in amounts of hundreds or even thousands of rupees a week,” explained Solomon. “It was this milieu that gave birth to the Shiv Sena’s own origin story of the vada pav: the authentic snack that sustained workers in times of labour trouble.”

http://qz.com/358779/how-a-right-wing-political-party-crafted-the-legend-of-mumbais-most-famous-snack/

at the hostel mess, the food was generally bad.  then we got the idea that we should just let the cooks make whatever is authentic from the places they're from instead of handing them a menu and asking them to follow it. the food quality improved.  there were two malayali cooks on the staff and hence avial became a staple for a while.  we tamilians and malayalis really used to look forward to this once a week satisfying meal. then the hate campaign to get it off the menu started. all kinds of weird reasons including that it looked ugly and unappetizing were put forward and the poor avial got the boot.  that was the last time i ate at my hostel mess. must have been middle of second year. a whole bunch of us southern indians (mostly bombay tamilians and a sprinkling of telugus and malayalis) boycotted the mess and joined as guests in a neighboring hostel's mess which had more varied and tastier fare.  we were allowed to do this for an extra fee.

ashdoc wrote:vada pav is the humble indian burger !!

Hellsangel wrote:

ashdoc wrote:vada pav is the humble indian burger !!

Nah. Just a Bombay burger.

ashdoc wrote:

Hellsangel wrote:

ashdoc wrote:vada pav is the humble indian burger !!

Nah. Just a Bombay burger.

at least it is available in other parts of maharashtra . so it is maharashtra burger !!

Beatrix Kiddo wrote:when it comes to Bombay street food, I almost always go for paav bhaji... have had some outstanding ones there.

I like vada paav like a comfort food... we used to have it often at hotbreads in edison... I r'ber when we were bringing younger from the hospital, it was snowing and all (or had just finished snowing), but we made a stop at hotbreads before going home, and xh got vada paav for me. They had newly started making it then with all the chutneys, so it was our raving fave. Guessing that's the first shot of spicy younger got.